Vigod lecture attracts over 200

Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire was the guest speaker at the 12th annual Dr. Bernie Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights

An audience of over 200 packed the George Martin chapel for the 12th annual Dr. Bernie Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights at St. Thomas University. It was presented on November 19 by Lieutenant-General Romeo A. Dallaire, CMM, MSC, CD, on humanitarian intervention and peacekeeping.

Lieutenant-General Dallaire was born in Denekamp, Holland, on June 25, 1946. He enroled in the Canadian Army in 1964. Since his enrolment, he has held various command, staff and training appointments in Canada and in Germany. He has received many awards for his service, such as the Meritorious Service Cross for his command of the United Nations Observer Mission - Uganda and Rwanda (UNOMUR), and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)—both in 1993; The Vimy Award in 1995; and the Legion of Merit Medal by the United States in 1996. He was promoted to Lieutenant-General in April 1998.

Lieutenant-General Dallaire retired from the Canadian forces in April 2000. However, he is currently the Advisor to the Minister of the Canadian International Development Agency on matters relating to War Affected Children around the world. He is also writing a book on conflict resolution based on his experiences in and after the United Nations Mission to Rwanda in 1993-1994. In the fall of 2000 he received an honourary doctorate degree in laws from the University of Western Ontario. In the winter of 2001 he received an honourary doctorate degree in Military Sciences from the Royal Military College of Canada.

The Vigod lectures honour Bernard Vigod, the late University of New Brunswick history professor and life-long advocate of human rights and civil liberties. A trust fund to support the annual lectures was established after his death in 1988. The lecture is organized by the Atlantic Human Rights Centre based at St. Thomas.

Past Vigod lecturers have included Dr. Stephen Smith, a writer and lecturer on holocaust and genocide studies; Michelle Falardeau-Ramsey, Q.C., Chief Commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission; and Bruce Phillips, Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 1996.